


Like a Lament

by scullywolf



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-29
Updated: 2014-04-29
Packaged: 2018-01-21 07:02:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1541867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullywolf/pseuds/scullywolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of "Father's Day," the Doctor takes Rose to a planet called Woman Wept.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like a Lament

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [crazygirlne](http://crazygirlne.tumblr.com) for the prompt and [resile](http://archiveofourown.org/users/resile/pseuds/resile) for the beta! :)

He decides the view is worth the trip, even if the whole thing is a touch on-the-nose.

It’s not that he wasn’t sympathetic. Once he got over himself and realized that no, he couldn’t very well have expected a nineteen year-old human to understand about fixed points and paradoxes when he’d never really explained them properly, he truly did feel for her. And just because he happened to be reminded of the planet when he held her afterward, while she cried herself out, it didn’t mean that his mind was wandering or that he didn't comprehend the depth of her grief. 

But he knew, he _knew_ , that she would appreciate the beauty of the place, and he wanted to make it up to her, something approaching an apology for his paranoid temper tantrum.

He warned her when they landed that she’d want to dress warmly, and she did listen, but even so, she's tucked close against his side as they stand on the bluff above the beach, staring at the frozen waves. He can't see her face, but he can hear the awe in her voice when she finally speaks, breaking the silence that hangs around them like something tangible.

"Blimey, how on Earth. . .erm, I mean. . .what's this place called?"

"Penn Alutu, its discoverers called it," he says, intentionally pronouncing it in a way the TARDIS won't translate automatically, "though there's no one here, not anymore.” He’s silent for the span of a few breaths, his voice hushed when he continues. “As for the ‘how,’ this planet was caught in the crossfire in the earliest days of the Time War.”

He feels her sharp intake of breath as much as he hears it. He’s spoken so little of the War, and even then only about the worst aspects of it--Daleks, the loss of his people--that she’s no doubt come to associate its very name with the aftermath of his post-traumatic nightmares. But the War had lasted for centuries, and much of that time he’d remained deliberately uninvolved. The vast bulk of the conflict he could regard with a sort of academic detachment. It was, after all, not so very different from any other war. Not at first, anyway.

In any case, he doesn't want to dwell on the the why and the how, had only wanted to show her something amazing. But he supposes there is also something to be said for finding beauty in tragic places. And isn’t that a change from how he’s felt, lately?

He clears his throat.

“More accurately, this planet’s sun got caught in the crossfire,” he continues. “It was hit with a weapon that removed fifty-four percent of its mass instantly. The seas froze in the midst of a storm. It wasn’t cold enough to immediately kill the people living here, but they couldn’t stay. Had to move on. Fortunately, most were able to.”

She's still and quiet beside him, hanging on his words in that way she sometimes does, that way that makes him feel like something extraordinary. 

"D'you want to have a closer look?"

She nods, the fuzzy edge of her parka's hood tickling his chin. They separate enough to walk comfortably, but she stays close, her hand firmly clasping his. Their footsteps crunch across frosty grass that had stood previously undisturbed for nearly half a millennium.

The grass gives way to clay, which gives way to sand as they descend further. It's near midnight, and the planet's large moon bathes them with a soft, pinkish light. Their breaths are visible as tiny puffs of white, trailing out behind them for a few moments before dissipating.

Rose watches the towering frozen waves draw nearer, and the Doctor watches Rose. This view, of her awestruck expression, is even more worth the trip than the view from the bluff had been, though he's only barely able to admit to himself that there's anything more to his reaction than the usual delight in showing a human companion something alien and fantastic.

"'S incredible," she breathes, and he can't disagree.

They walk out onto the ice with careful steps, the waves standing a hundred feet or more above their heads. She reaches her free hand out, exercising that wonderfully human impulse to make something real simply by touching it. 

"What about the fish?" She huffs a short laugh. "Guess that's a stupid question."

He gives a noncommittal shrug. "Reckon they're probably in stasis, of a sort. Some of 'em, anyway. Same as when a pond freezes over in the winter, and the fish reanimate come springtime. Only these waters, they'll never thaw."

She nods, and they're quiet again for a while. 

They make their way slowly to the edge of one wave and the start of the next. This one's curled all the way over, an enormous ice tunnel. Rose shivers as they walk inside, and the Doctor tucks their clasped hands into the pocket of his leather jacket. It's an action more symbolic than strictly necessary; the gloves she's wearing are thin but made of a 37th century synthetic polywool fiber more than adequate to keep her fingers from freezing.

Though if he were asked, he'd claim it was only that his own bare hand was starting to get a little bit cold. 

"Best get you back soon."

"I'm all right," she insists, but shivers again. He grins at her, and she rolls her eyes. "Oh all right, I'm cold. We _mere humans_ aren't meant to wander around on frozen seas for ages without a lot more layers. Can't believe you're not miserable, just a jumper and jacket, no gloves, no hat, hardly any hair to speak of...."

"Oi! What's wrong with my hair?" He rubs his free hand over the top of his head, while she giggles at him.

"Nothing's _wrong_ with it. Doesn't seem like it'd keep your head very warm is all. Although...." She pauses, raising an eyebrow in mock appraisal, then shakes her head. "Nah, reckon longer hair wouldn't suit you after all."

He's not sure whether he should be offended by this or not. Part of him wants to ask her to elaborate, wonders how she really sees him through those human eyes of hers.

"Come on, back to the TARDIS," he says instead, pulling their hands out of his pocket and taking a step back toward the entrance of the ice tunnel, tugging gently when she doesn't immediately follow him.

Her shoulders raise and lower as if from a sigh, and when she turns toward him, she's smiling.

The walk back up to the bluff takes longer than the walk down did, not least because Rose keeps hesitating every so often to glance back over her shoulder. He doesn't mind; he's pleased, in fact, that he'd been right about how much she would like it here. It's a nice respite from the usual running, and the overtly alien landscape stands in welcome contrast to the domestic disaster of their most recent misadventure. 

Finally they're standing outside the TARDIS once more. He's just about to push open the door when she speaks.

"Hang on just a mo'."

She pulls her hand from his and walks back to the bluff's edge, fishing her mobile out of her trousers and holding it up to take a picture. She pockets the phone but doesn't turn around, just stands there, staring out at the frozen sea. After a minute, he walks over to stand beside her. She takes his hand without even looking over at him.

"'S weird, you know? It's sad what happened here, with the sun and the people and the fish and all. But it's beautiful, too. One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. And it makes me feel...I feel like I shouldn't love it. ‘Cause...in a way I'm almost glad it happened, you know? Glad I got to see it. Dunno what that says about me.” She’s quiet again, and he waits, knowing that she’s not really fishing for reassurance so much as working through things out loud. After a while she shrugs, turning toward him with her mouth quirked into a sort of half-smile. “Maybe it doesn’t say anything.”

He hadn’t meant for her to feel bad for appreciating the very thing he’d brought her to see. Surely she must know that. The fact that she doesn’t take it all for granted, though, the way she really _thinks_ about everything...it’s one of the things he admires most about her.

"C'mon, Rose. Got one more thing to show you. I think you'll like this."

He leads her into the TARDIS at last, quickly initiating the dematerialization sequence and putting them into orbit just above the planet. She's hardly sat down on the jump seat when he's extending his arm toward the door.

"Go on, have a look."

Eyebrows raised in question, she stands and walks over to open the door. He follows. The planet floats below them, the continent for which it was named standing out dark against the blue-grey of the frozen sea. Rose is backlit by the considerable albedo, a result of so much surface ice, her hair glowing golden in a way that sends chimes ringing across his timesense for reasons he does not understand. The inexplicable reverence he feels in this moment shines through in his voice when he speaks again.

"Fifteen hundred years ago, a group of colonists looked down on this planet. They saw the shape of the land, and they named the world Penn Alutu. Woman Wept. Some of them said the very planet was lamenting the thought of their arrival. Others said she grieved _for_ them, for the overcrowding and near-constant war on a world they'd long since outgrown. In the end, they did make a home here, and for a thousand years, they flourished. They were grateful for the chance to start fresh, and they didn't waste it."

When he dares to glance over, she's giving him that look of hers again, the one that makes his hearts stutter and swell. He has more to say, about the planet and its people and how sometimes things work out better than anyone might expect, but the words die in his throat as he considers the unexpected turn his own life has taken. Regeneration is almost always something of a fresh start, but this time around, he hadn't wanted it. It wasn't fair he survived when everyone else had been lost.

But then he'd tracked a signal to a department store basement, and everything had changed. Things didn't seem so bleak, anymore. He wants to tell her what she means to him, what she's done for him. Except that it's also they very last thing he wants to do.

Instead, he lets a broad grin break across his face.

"Now then, Rose Tyler. Fancy a bite to eat?"


End file.
